Lunch at the lake

A dragonfly, a wide-tipped clubtail, snagged a newly emerged caddisfly out of the air as I watched, then perched nearby and started to consume its prey. It was a quick lunch; the caddisfly was consumed in less than five minutes. Dragonflies and other odonata are voracious consumers of gnats, mosquitoes, and other small flying insects.

It was an early June day, one of those perfect sunny days with temperatures in the high 70s; I decided I could no longer sit at the computer and work on whatever report I happened to be working on, so I took a break in the form of a late morning walk. I walked to a nearby lakeshore and thought in hindsight that I should have packed a lunch. When I arrived at the lake, I observed that I wasn’t the only hungry one there.

The first hungry critters I observed were dozens of tree swallows circling and banking over the water in unpredictable patterns that would give an air traffic controller nightmares. The tree swallows were dining on the many flying insects over the water. Some insects were doing their own air show while foraging for lunch. Many dragonflies were hovering and darting in the air as they attempted to grab a snack on mid-air in the form of smaller flying insects.

Taking a closer look at the surrounding habitat, I found more successful foragers; observe the images I have captured on this day to see various creatures enjoying lunch at the lake.